V>1\ac- 


Our  Missionary  Task 


Its  Requirements, 
Progress  and 
Urgency 


EGBERT  W.  SMITH 


Copies  of  this  leaflet  may  be  obtained  from 
EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 
PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  U.  S. 

154  Fifth  Street,  North,  Nashville,  Tenn. 


Our  Missionary  Task: 

Its  Requirements,  Progress,  and  Urgency. 


EGBERT  W.  SMITH. 


Fifty-seven  years  ago  when  the  great  Scotch  Missionary,  Alexander  Duff, 
was  in  this  country,  he  said  before  a  memorable  gathering  in  New  York  City, 
“If  for  a  moment  1  could  wield  the  wand  of  despotic  power  for  a  good  purpose, 
I  would  go  to  the  heathen  world  and  there  chalk  out  a  separate  district  for  every 
evangelical  denomination.” 

Our  Foreign  Parish. 

What  Duff  longed  for  has  come  to  pass.  Waste  and  friction  have  been 
eliminated.  The  districts  have  been  chalked  out.  In  the  seven  countries  where 
our  missions  were  planted,  definite  sections  have  been  set  apart  to  our  Church, 
embracing  an  aggregate  population  of  over  25,000,000.  Other  Churches  have 
accepted  their  assignments,  and  we  have  accepted  ours.  As  servants  of  a  Mis¬ 
sionary  Saviour  we  could  not  do  less.  Whether  we  evangelize  the  field  assigned 
us  or  not,  we  keep  others  out. 

Said  a  gentleman  once  to  Daniel  Webster,  “Mr.  Webster,  what  is  the 
most  solemn  thought  that  ever  entered  your  mind?”  Mr.  Webster’s  answer 
was,  “The  thought  of  my  personal  accountability  to  God.”  The  most  solemn 
thought  that  can  enter  the  mind  of  our  Church,  a  thought  that  should  awe 
and  thrill  and  quicken  us  beyond  any  other,  is  this,  that  twenty-five  millions  of 
men  and  women  and  children  are  dependent  on  us  for  spiritual  life  and  light. 
We  are  their  one  hope  of  knowing  Jesus  Christ. 

Missionary  experts  have  estimated  that  to  evangelize  this  number  of  peo¬ 
ple  in  a  reasonable  time  will  require  of  us  one  million  dollars  per  year.  This 
amount  our  General  Assembly  has  approved  and  has  called  upon  our  people  to 
contribute.  According  to  the  Minutes  of  1912  we  gave  for  the  support  and  ex¬ 
tension  of  religion  in  our  Home  Parish  $3,781,632.  One  fourth  of  that  would 
be  $945,408,  or  nearly  the  annual  amount  required.  Is  it  right  that  our  Foreign 


Parish  should  receive  one  fourth  as  much  as  we  spend  on  our  Home  Parish? 
It  seems  right  in  view  of 

The  Relative  Size  of  Our  Home  and  Foreign  Parishes. 

Our  Church  is  not  responsible  for  the  whole  non-Christian  world.  It 
divides  that  responsibility  with  a  host  of  other  evangelical  Churches  in  Christian 
lands.  Neither  is  our  Church  responsible  for  the  whole  thirty  million  population 
of  our  Southern  states.  It  divides  that  responsibility  with  thirty  or  more  bodies 
of  evangelical  white  Christians  that  live  and  labor  in  the  same  section.  A  study 
of  the  U.  S.  Religious  Census  Reports  shows  that  our  Southern  Presbyterian 
Church  constitutes  four  and  one-third  per  cent  of  the  white  evangelical  church 
membership  of  the  South.  Judging  by  numerical  strength  alone,  therefore,  our 
share  of  the  thirty  millions  would  be  four  and  one-third  per  cent,  or  about 

1 .300,000. 

But  a  Bible  principle  comes  in  here.  “To  whom  much  is  given  of  him  shall 
much  be  required.’*  When  we  remember  how  much  has  been  given  to  Southern 
Presbyterians  in  the  way  of  godly  ancestry,  pious  home-training,  sound  doc¬ 
trine,  educational  opportunity,  and  material  prosperity,  we  feel  that  God  will 
require  more  of  us  than  our  numerical  strength  would  indicate.  How  much  more? 
Shall  we  say  that  God  has  a  right  to  expect  four  times  as  much  from  the  average 
Southern  Presbyterian  as  from  the  average  member  of  other  denominations? 
Shall  we  say  that  Southern  Presbyterians,  when  weighed,  will  balance  four 
times  their  number  of  other  church  members? 

Our  modesty  would  utterly  shrink  from  such  a  claim,  and  we  do  not 
dream  of  making  it.  Y et  on  this  untenably  extreme  basis  of  apportionment  our 
share  of  the  30,000,000  of  the  South  would  be  four  times  our  numerical  propor¬ 
tion,  or  about  5,000,000.  Certainly  the  most  bigoted  high-church  Presbyterian 
in  our  whole  connection  could  not  claim  for  his  Church  a  greater  superiority  than 
four  to  one,  or  a  larger  consequent  share  of  our  Home  field  than  5,000,000. 

In  the  fear  of  God  let  us  ask  ourselves  this  question:  If  for  the  religious 
welfare  of  these  five  millions,  including  our  own  families,  we  contribute  $3,781 ,682, 
is  it  not  reasonable  that  for  the  religious  welfare  of  yonder  twenty-five  millions 
we  should  contribute  $1,000,000?  Should  we  not  give  one-fourth  as  much  to 
meet  a  five  times  larger  responsibility? 


The  Superior  Needs  of  Our  Foreign  Parish. 

But  the  case  is  stronger  yet.  Our  Home  Parish,  for  the  most  part,  has  long 
been  blessed  with  a  Christian  civilization.  The  most  of  it  has  been  for  genera¬ 
tions  under  continuous  church  and  Sunday-school  influence.  On  the  average, 
out  of  every  hundred  of  its  people,  including  both  young  and  old  of  all  races, 
3]  are  Protestant  church  members,  and  37  belong  to  some  form  of  church  organi¬ 
zation.  There  is  an  average  of  one  Protestant  minister  to  every  639  of  its  peo¬ 
ple,  one  doctor  to  every  650,  and  state-supported  schools  are  in  reach  of  nearly 
all;  so  that  in  the  Home  Parish  our  Church  as  such  is  called  upon  to  do  only  a 
fraction  of  the  educational  work  and  none  of  the  medical. 

But  in  our  Foreign  Parish  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  needs  are  so 
desperate  and  appealing  that  there  our  Church  must  reproduce  directly  our 
Lord’s  triple  work  on  earth  of  preaching,  teaching,  and  healing.  It  must  preach, 
where  every  minister  we  send  has  an  average  parish  of  far  above  one  hundred 
thousand.  It  must  teach,  where  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  population  have  their 
minds  closed  and  darkened  by  total  illiteracy.  It  must  heal,  where  the  average 
is  less  than  one  physician  to  a  million  people.  If  we  give  $3,781,632  to  our 
Home  Parish,  should  we  not  give  one  fourth  as  much  to  our  Foreign  Parish 
whose  needs  are  so  vastly  greater? 

I  am  not  urging  a  reduction  in  our  Home  gifts.  God  forbid!  But  I  am 
pleading  for  an  increase  of  the  Foreign  Mission  offering  till  the  proportion  is 
more  nearly  what  it  ought  to  be.  So  far  from  discouraging  Home  benevolence, 
what  I  am  saying  of  the  size  and  needs  of  our  Foreign  Parish  is  an  argument  for 
strengthening  our  forces  here,  so  that  on  an  ever-broadening  base  at  home  we 
may  build  up  an  ever-enlarging  work  abroad. 

Not  One  Cause  But  All  Causes  In  One. 

We  are  often  tempted  to  look  upon  Foreign  Missions  as  but  a  single  item 
among  our  benevolent  objects.  We  think  of  it  as  standing  on  the  same  platform 
and  in  the  same  row  with  the  others.  This  is  a  mistake.  Foreign  Missions 
is  not  an  item  of  benevolence;  it  is  a  vast  international  system  of  benevolence, 
embracing  all  the  items.  It  includes  traveling  expenses,  ministers’  salaries,  min¬ 
isters’  houses,  church  erection,  home  missionary  and  evangelistic  work  of  all 
kinds;  educational  work  of  all  kinds,  day  schools,  colleges,  and  seminaries; 


medical  work,  with  doctors,  nurses,  hospitals,  and  dispensaries;  translation 
and  publication  work,  for  sowing  the  truth  broadcast;  ministerial  relief,  for  dis¬ 
abled  and  aged  missionaries  and  their  dependent  families;  colportage  work, 
Sunday-school  work,  orphanage  work,  native  helpers’  support,  and  all  the  other 
items  of  labor  and  expense  necessary  to  bring  the  regenerative  powers  of  Christ¬ 
ianity  into  closest,  broadest  contact  with  the  awful  needs  of  Christless  nations. 
The  Foreign  cause  is  all  the  Christian  causes  in  one.  It  requires  so  much  be¬ 
cause  it  includes  so  much. 

Where  Gifts  and  Work  Bring  Largest  Returns. 

But  great  as  its  needs  are,  the  blessings  of  God  upon  it,  and  the  opportuni¬ 
ties  opening  before  it,  are  greater  still.  The  work  thus  far  has  been  largely 
foundation  work,  sowing  rather  than  reaping.  Yet  already  we  have  a  Foreign 
church  membership  of  over  26,000,  with  adherents  numbering  65,000  more. 
Compared  with  the  total  amounts  expended,  the  results  in  conversions  are  nearly 
twice  as  great,  and  the  cost  per  convert  nearly  twice  as  small,  on  the  foreign 
field  as  in  our  home  churches.  Our  ordained  missionaries  average  four  times  as 
many  converts  per  year  as  our  home  ministers,  while  the  percentage  of  annual 
increase  of  our  Foreign  membership  is  about  eight  times  that  of  the  Home 
church. 

A  Good  Beginning. 

The  blacker  the  background,  the  brighter  the  light.  One  Christian  church, 
or  one  out-spoken  Christian  man  or  woman,  in  the  midst  of  a  corrupt  or 
heathen  civilization,  is  ten  times  more  conspicuous,  more  widely  known,  dis¬ 
cussed,  and  pondered,  than  such  church  or  individual  would  be  in  this  country. 
The  following  figures,  therefore,  while  outlining  the  work  in  our  seven  fields,  are 
wholly  inadequate  to  measure  the  range  of  the  Christian  influence  exerted  or 
the  extent  to  which  it  is  steadily  undermining  the  social  and  religious  systems 
that  blight  and  darken  these  lands. 

In  Mexico  we  have  four  Stations,  12  organized  churches,  49  outstations,  or  places  of  regu¬ 
lar  meeting,  an  aggregate  church  membership  of  927,  and  a  Sunday-school  membership  of  846. 
Notwithstanding  the  intense  and  continuous  political  excitement,  78  were  added  by  confession 
last  year,  and  over  $5,000  contributed  by  the  native  Christians. 

In  Cuba,  our  most  recently  entered  mission  field,  we  have  six  Stations,  five  organized  churches, 
an  aggregate  church  memb  rship  of  506,  and  a  Sunday-school  membership  of  670.  Though  our 


already  small  mission  force  was  reduced  sixty  per  cent  by  sickness-enforced  absence  last  year, 
yet  53  were  added  on  confession  and  $2, 1 50  contributed  by  the  native  Christians. 

In  Brazil  we  have  31  Stations,  40  organized  churches,  153  outstations,  an  aggregate  church 
membership  of  4,400,  and  a  Sunday-school  membership  of  1,400.  Last  year  385  were  added  by 
confession  and  $16,841  contributed  by  the  native  Christians. 

In  Japan  we  have  six  Stations,  34  organized  churches  of  which  9  are  self-supporting,  37 
outstations,  an  aggregate  church  membership  of  over  2,300,  and  a  Sunday-school  membership  of 
over  2,700.  Last  year  259  were  added  by  profession  and  the  native  Christians  contributed  $1 1 ,964. 

In  China  we  have  15  stations,  88  outstations,  20  organized  churches,  an  aggregate  church 
membership  of  2,500,  and  a  Sunday-school  membership  of  2,022.  Last  year  193  were  added  by 
profession  and  the  native  Christians  out  of  their  poverty  contributed  $6,000.  The  year’s  work 
was  greatly  interfered  with  by  political  disturbances,  and  the  enforced  withdrawal  of  many  of 
our  missionaries  to  Shanghai. 

In  Korea  we  have  four  Stations,  353  churches  of  which  all  but  15  are  self-supporting,  an 
aggregate  church  membership  of  7, 1 55,  and  a  Sunday-school  membership  of  1 1 ,200.  Last  year 
1 ,900  were  added  by  confession,  and  the  native  Christians,  despite  their  extreme  poverty,  con¬ 
tributed  $5,283. 

Our  Stations,  Luebo  and  Ibanche,  in  the  Belgian  Congo,  Africa,  to  which  a  third  Station 
Mutoto,  has  recently  been  added,  report  an  aggregate  church  membership  of  8,386,  with  1 1 1 
outstations  and  a  Sunday-school  membership  of  10,550.  Last  year  615  were  added  on  con¬ 
fession,  though  this  number  would  have  been  much  larger  had  not  the  Station  force  been  so 
depleted  that  there  were  no  missionaries  to  visit  many  of  the  outstations  and  receive  into  the 
church  those  who  were  waiting  to  be  examined. 

Summary. 

In  our  seven  foreign  fields  last  year  we  had  69  Stations,  438  outstations,  464  churches,  786 
native  helpers,  a  church  membership  of  26, 1 74,  a  Sunday-school  membership  of  29,388,  3,483 
additions  on  profession,  and  nearly  $50,000  contributed  by  the  native  Christians.  Over  1 1 ,000 
pupils  were  taught  in  our  mission  day-schools,  colleges,  and  seminaries,  over  100,000 
medical  treatments  given  in  our  hospitals,  and  vast  quantities  of  Christian  literature  printed 
and  circulated. 

The  above  totals  are  in  almost  every  instance  below  the  facts,  as  several  Stations  have  not 
sent  in  reports,  and  of  the  reports  received  many  are  incomplete. 

Our  Present  Foreign  Missionary  Force. 

At  the  present  writing,  June,  1,  1912,  we  have  in  our  seven  fields  98  ordained  men,  22 
doctors,  1 1  male  teachers,  1 22  wives,  and  67  single  women  serving  as  teachers,  nurses,  or 
evangelists.  The  total  is  320,  distributed  as  follows:  in  Africa,  20;  in  Brazil,  38;  in 


China,  132;  in  Cuba,  18;  in  Japan,  38;  in  Korea,  62;  in  Mexico,  12.  About  four-fifths  of  our 
missionary  force,  on  the  average,  are  in  active  foreign  service,  the  other  fifth  being  in  this 
country  on  their  regular  furloughs,  which  they  usually  spend  in  lecture  tours  among  the 
churches,  or  else  detained  here  by  broken  health,  old  age,  or  domestic  necessities. 

Are  We  Sending  Out  Too  Many  Missionaries? 

Of  our  1 ,600  active  ministers,  1 ,500  are  laboring  in  our  Home  Parish  of 
5,000,000,  and  98  in  our  Foreign  Parish  of  25,000,000.  Of  our  nearly  300,000 
members,  including  11,000  Ruling  Elders,  10,000  Deacons  and  25,000  Sunday- 
school  teachers,  we  have  sent  222  to  evangelize  our  Foreign  Parish,  or  less 
than  one-thirteenth  of  one  per  cent. 

Financial  Condition  and  Policy. 

By  the  blessing  of  God  our  Church  last  year  for  the  first  time  crossed  the 
half  million  line,  the  total  receipts  being  $504,803.  Though  the  receipts  from 
legacies  were  $30,000  less  than  the  year  before,  the  gifts  from  living  donors 
were  $82,000  more.  For  the  five  previous  years  the  deficit  had  been  steadily 
increasing  as  the  actual  expenses  of  the  expanding  work  overtopped  more  and 
more  the  annual  support  provided.  In  1910  the  work  required  $40,000  beyond 
income.  In  1911  it  required  $45,000  beyond  income.  On  April  1,  1911,  the 
deficit  had  grown  to  $132,000.  Last  year  its  increase  was  not  only  stopped  but 
20  per  cent  of  its  total  was  paid  off,  while  with  pinching  economies  the  whole 
work  was  not  only  sustained,  but  24  new  missionaries  were  sent  out. 

It  is  now  the  fixed  policy  and  practice  of  the  Executive  Committee  of 
Foreign  Missions  to  send  out  no  new  missionary  until  his  expenses  of  travel  and 
equipment  and  his  annual  cost  of  $1,000  have  been  secured  or  pledged  in  ad¬ 
vance  as  a  net  addition  to  income. 

Our  Korean  Field  Provided  For. 

In  1 91 0  the  physical  equipment  of  our  Korean  Mission  was  provided  for.  Last 
year  was  added  the  practical  completion  of  the  missionary  force  necessary  to  accom¬ 
plish  our  missionary  task  there;  so  that  now,  without  enlarging  our  present 
outlay  in  that  field,  we  may  confidently  expect  that  in  a  reasonable  time  the 
gospel  will  be  preached  and  a  church  established  in  every  city  and  village  of 
that  section  of  Korea,  for  the  evangelization  of  which  we  are  responsible. 


This  is  the  first  actual  fulfillment  by  our  Church  of  its  responsibility  for 
one  of  those  seven  great  fields  which  it  assumed  in  1907  as  its  share  of  the 
non-Christian  world.  It  is  a  thrilling  event  in  our  Mission  history.  It  is  big 
with  promise  for  our  six  other  fields.  It  should  evoke  praise  to  God  and  fire 
with  fresh  zeal  our  whole  Church.  It  means  that  we  are  grappling  in  a  busi¬ 
ness-like  and  successful  way  with  the  mightiest  work  that  God  has  given  us  to 
do. 

Africa  and  China  come  next.  Unmistakable  providences  indicate  this 
order. 

Ethiopia  Stretching  Out  Her  Hands. 

So  marvelously  has  God’s  Spirit  been  poured  out  upon  our  African  field 
that  native  tribes  hundreds  of  miles  distant  have  been  sending  messengers  to 
our  Mission  begging  for  Bible  teachers.  The  situation  there  for  years  has  been 
the  literal  fulfillment  of  the  Scripture  prophecy,  “Ethiopia  shall  stretch  out  her 
hands  unto  God.”  Last  winter  our  missionary  force  had  become  so  depleted 
that  the  native  Christians  appointed  a  season  of  prayer  and  fasting  that  more 
missionaries  might  be  sent.  Some  of  them  were  in  such  agony  of  supplication 
that  for  three  days  they  touched  neither  food  nor  drink. 

The  answer  to  this  prayer  was  seen  at  the  great  Convention  at  Chatta¬ 
nooga,  when  twenty-eight  young  volunteers  stood  on  the  platform  offering 
their  services  for  this  field,  fourteen  of  whom  will  sail  this  summer. 

The  following  is  part  of  a  letter  written  from  the  Congo  by  Bishop  Lambuth, 
Mission  Secretary  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Church.  It  shows  how  our 
missionaries  are  training  the  native  Christians  to  be  evangelists  to  their  own 
people,  which  is  the  only  way  in  which  any  land  can  be  thoroughly  and 
permanently  Christianized. 

“My  soul  rejoiced  within  me  at  this  great  piece  of  evangelism  wrought  out  by  the  Southern 
Presbyterian  missionaries  in  twenty-one  years. 

“A  mere  handful  of  white  and  colored  missionaries  have  gathered  about  them  8,000  earnest 
Christians,  and  out  of  this  number  300  teachers  and  evangelists,  who,  while  they  themselves 
are  under  training,  have  daily  under  instruction  thousands  of  children  and  grown  people.  What 
is  m  ore,  this  is  capable  of  indefinite  extension.  The  only  limitation  is  the  number  and  strength 
of  the  working  force.  Do  you  wonder  that  my  soul  is  stirred  when  I  think  of  this  being  carried 
on  for  a  nine  days’  journey  on  foot  in  almost  every  direction  from  Luebo  as  the  base  or  center. 


and  by  LAYMEN?  Not  one  ordained  preacher  as  yet,  and  200  of  the  force  of  300  self-support¬ 
ing.  In  other  words  the  villagers,  in  addition  to  building  the  sheds  or  school  houses  and 
churches,  supjjort  these  men  by  building  them  houses  and  supplying  cassava  for  bread,  palm 
oil,  yams,  chickens,  eggs,  ants,  grasshoppers,  and  caterpillars. 

Challenge  to  the  Laymen. 

“What  a  challenge  to  the  Laymen  of  our  Church!  We  have  never  fully  utilized  this  great 
contingent  at  home.  Here  is  an  illustration  of  what  can  be  done  from  the  foreign  field.  These 
men  are  not  preachers.  They  do  not  pretend  to  be.  They  are  Christian  school  teachers;  they 
are  expounders  of  the  Word  of  God  as  they  themselves  have  been  taught;  they  organize  cottage 
prayer  meetings  and  establish  and  superintend  Sunday-schools.  They  know  God.  I  rarely 
have  heard  such  prayers.  They  have  learned  how  to  talk  with  God,  and  with  a  devoutness  of 
spirit  which  is  marvelous.  They  are  leading  the  people  in  the  way  of  truth  and  right  living. 

“The  work  of  these  men  and  that  of  their  missionary  leaders  is  rooted  and  grounded  in  faith 
and  in  prayer.  Think  of  three  hundred  turning  out  every  morning  of  the  year  to  6  o’clock  prayer 
meeting.  Think  of  a  semi-circle  of  cottage  prayer  meetings  at  Luebo  every  Wednesday  night 
extending  for  two  miles.  I  heard  the  singing  from  half  a  hundred  different  points  while  I  was 
walking  through  the  mission  compound  or  campus,  on  my  way  to  conduct  the  missionary  prayer 
service  in  English.  Is  there  any  wonder  that  we  felt  that  night  the  presence  of  our  Lord?  I 
thank  God  for  what  I  have  seen  and  heard.  The  half  had  not  been  told  me." 

Sixteen  more  missionaries  are  needled  to  meet  our  responsibilities  in  the 
Congo.  Who  will  go  and  who  will  send  them? 

The  Unparalleled  Situation  in  China. 

The  astonished  gaze  of  the  world  is  fixed  today  on  China.  Her  iron-bound 
conservatism  of  four  thousand  years  has  given  place  to  a  passionate  eagerness 
to  acquire  Western  knowledge  and  to  incorporate  into  her  own  life  whatever  has 
made  the  Western  peoples  strong.  A  nation  of  400,000,000,  whose  race- 
qualities  as  well  as  numbers  predestine  them  to  leadership;  whose 
intellectual  and  spiritual  capacity  coupled  with  their  unique  ability  to 
thrive  in  any  latitude,  would  make  them  the  best  missionaries  in  the  world; 
this  nation  is  today  susceptible,  open-minded,  looking  to  us  for  teaching  and 
guidance.  Could  human  imagination  conceive  a  greater  appeal  to  the  Christian 
Church? 

The  Thirst  for  Knowledge. 

China's  need  of  Christian  teachers  is  a  hundred  times  greater  than  the  supply. 
Only  one  man  in  twenty  can  read,  and  but  one  woman  in  a  thousand  The  dead 


hand  of  the  past,  which  for  four  thousand  years  has  rested  with  such  crushing 
weight  on  the  Chinese  woman’s  mind,  stifling  aspiration  and  shutting  out  every 
opportunity  for  mental  development,  is  at  last  being  lifted,  and  her  eagerness 
for  knowledge  is  pathetic  beyond  words. 

The  principal  of  a  school  in  Nanking  writes:  “One  of  our  little  girls  re¬ 
cently  asked  to  go  home  to  have  her  picture  taken.  She  proudly  showed  me 
the  result,  which  was  a  feminine  family  group,  with  grandmother,  mother,  three 
or  more  aunts,  and  six  cousins.  All  had  assumed  an  intellectual  expression 
and  were  posing  before  open  books.  Our  little  girl  was  the  only  member  of  the 
group  that  could  read.  The  others  only  wanted  to.” 

That  picture  stands  for  China’s  women  today.  Every  woman  in  China 
wants  to  read.  Our  mission  schools  have  more  applicants  than  we  can  possibly 
accommodate.  * 

In  a  certain  town  the  school  principal  is  an  ardent  Confucianist,  yet  so 
urgent  is  the  demand  for  Western  accomplishments  that  to  teach  them  she 
employs  a  young  woman  trained  in  a  mission  school  and  a  Christian.  Were 
you  to  attend  her  class  room,  you  would  see  a  strange  sight.  Here  is  the  tablet 
in  honor  of  Confucius,  the  incense,  candles,  and  all  the  other  paraphernalia  of 
worship.  Amid  it  all  you  would  see  the  young  teacher,  in  the  presence  of  the 
pupils,  rise  and  sing,  “Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul.’’ 

When  we  remember  that  teachers  are  more  admired  and  revered  in  China 
than  in  any  other  nation  on  earth,  we  can  realize  in  some  measure  what  an  un¬ 
speakable  call  there  is  for  Christian  men  and  women  to  go  out  as  teachers  to 
lead  and  mould  the  new  China. 

The  Changed  Attitude. 

Our  missionaries  today  are  popular.  Their  part  in  the  famine  relief  has 
won  the  people’s  love  and  they  are  looked  upon  as  the  friends  of  the  new  Republic. 

A  few  years  ago  when  they  first  went  to  Suchien,  they  were  driven  out  of 
the  city  by  the  town  officers  and  the  mob.  But  they  came  back.  When  some 
of  these  missionaries  last  fall  were  about  to  leave  for  this  country,  these 


same  town  officers  called  on  them,  begged  them  to  return,  and  offered  to  send  a 
petition  to  the  home  church  that  they  be  sent  back. 

In  those  earlier  years  one  of  the  lady  missionaries  was  sick  and  had  to  leave 
the  city  for  treatment.  As  she  was  borne  out  of  the  city  gate,  an  old  Chinese  wo¬ 
man  pointed  her  finger  at  the  invalid  and  said,  “The  foreign  devil  is  sick;  she 
ought  to  die.”  Last  fall  when  a  sick  lady  missionary  had  to  leave  the  same 
city,  one  hundred  Chinese  friends  accompanied  her  to  the  boat-landing  and  sang, 
“God  be  with  you  till  we  meet  again.” 

When  our  missionaries  in  1894  went  to  Hsuchoufu,  they  were  hounded  out 
of  the  city.  Today  we  have  there  a  church  of  500  members,  one  orphanage, 
two  medical  dispensaries,  and  boys’  and  girls’  schools.  Our  workers  are  utterly 
incapable  of  overtaking  the  work.  The  church  is  packed  to  suffocation  and  over¬ 
flow  meetings  have  to  be  held,  while  the  surrounding  villages  are  clamoring  for 
teachers.  If  we  had  Christian  forces  enough,  we  could  take  China  for  Christ. 

Says  an  able  member  of  our  North  Kiangsu  Mission:  “The  country  that 
was  closed  has  been  opened  wide.  It  is  for  us  now  to  seize  the  great  opportunity. 
The  time  is  now.  The  people  are  waiting  with  wide-open  arms.  They  welcome 
us.  They  feast  us.  They  cannot  do  enough  for  their  American  friends,  as  they 
call  us.  I  could  spend  my  days  from  year’s  end  to  year’s  end  among  the  people, 
and  then  not  get  to  visit  all  the  places  to  which  I  have  been  invited.” 

The  Critical  Moment. 

This  period  of  eager  open-mindedness  is  sure  to  be  brief.  The  national 
mind  is  too  sober  and  conservative  to  remain  long  unsettled,  and  when  it  does 
settle  down  it  will  be  with  the  immobility  of  a  great  mountain.  This  it  is  that 
makes  the  present  what  Hon.  James  Bryce,  British  Ambassador  at  Washington, 
calls  “the  most  critical  moment  there  has  ever  been  in  the  history  of  the  non- 
Christian  nations.” 

China’s  old  religions  are  doomed.  With  all  their  defects  they  have  been 
a  morally  conserving  influence  in  the  life  of  this  great  nation.  But  they  are 
doomed.  They  cannot  stand  before  the  new  knowledge.  And  with  them  go  the 
only  ethical  guidance  and  restraints  that  China,  as  a  nation,  has  ever  known. 
Unless  we  give  her  a  new  moral  basis  of  life,  unless  we  furnish  her  with  beliefs  and 
precepts  by  which  she  can  live  and  control  her  evil  impulses  and  form  worthy 
conceptions  of  life  and  work  and  destiny,  her  last  state  will  be  worse  than  the  first. 


The  imminent  clanger  is,  that,  torn  from  her  old  moorings,  she  will  drift 
out  on  the  dark  ocean  of  materialism,  agnosticism,  infidelity;  surely  the  richest 
freight  ever  derelict  on  the  waters  of  time.  Shall  we  let  her  take  the  path  of 
tragedy  across  the  unknown  seas?  Or  shall  we  give  her  not  only  our  railroads 
and  telegraphs,  our  whisky  and  cigarettes,  but  also  our  divinest  possession,  the 
religion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ? 

The  Burning  Question. 

That  is  far  the  biggest  question  before  our  Church  today,  for  half  our  For¬ 
eign  Mission  responsibility  is  in  China.  And  that  question  will  be  largely  set¬ 
tled  in  the  next  few  years.  While  we  pause  to  calculate,  events  there  are  rush¬ 
ing  forward  with  relentless  and  bewildering  swiftness. 

May  God  drive  home  to  the  mind,  the  heart,  the  conscience  of  our  Church 
this  most  towering  fact  of  modern  world-history,  that  this  nation  of  one-fourth 
the  human  family,  this  race  that  will  one  day  sway  the  East  as  the  white  race 
sways  the  West,  is  NOW  by  God’s  Providence,  for  the  first  time  in  history, 
plastic,  responsive,  open-minded,  LOOKING  TO  US  FOR  WHAT  SHE  NEEDS. 
Never  since  Christianity  came  out  of  Palestine  has  the  Church  of  Christ 
been  face  to  face  with  such  a  crisis  and  such  an  opportunity. 

What  Will  You  Do? 

This  missionary  task,  whose  requirements,  progress,  and  urgency  have  been 
set  before  you,  is  your  task,  set  you  by  your  Saviour  and  Lord.  Will  you 
grapple  with  it  gladly,  heartily,  heroically? 

May  God  fire  you  with  the  ambition  to  make  your  life  count  to  the  very 
last  ounce  for  the  coming  of  Christ’s  Kingdom  in  the  earth.  Some  of  us  ought 
to  pray  and  go.  All  of  us  ought  to  pray  and  give,  putting,  it  may  be,  a  hundred 
dollars,  a  thousand  dollars,  or  ten  thousand  dollars,  a  year  into  the  great  cause. 
All  of  us  ought  to  pray  and  work,  giving  our  personal  efforts  to  help  Christ  save 
the  world. 

Will  you  be  His  faithful  partner  in  the  glorious  enterprise?  Will  you  trans¬ 
mute  your  prayers,  your  gold,  your  labors,  into  immortal  spirits  saved  by  the 
blood  of  Christ?  Shall  there  be  a  great  company  from  the  heathen  world  to 
welcome  you  into  everlasting  habitations,  and  to  make  Heaven  richer  and  sweeter 
for  you  throughout  all  eternity?  What  shall  your  answer  be? 


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